Scams associated with the LIFE Mission and Kerala Fibre Optic Network (K-Fone), the two flag ship mega infrastructure projects of the ruling Left Democratic Front Government in the State turned worse with Swapna Suresh, the third accused in the gold smuggling case telling the Enforcement Directorate officials that all illegal transactions and deals involving these programmes were carried out with the full knowledge of the Chief Minister’s Office.
Ramesh Chennithala, Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition, alleged on Wednesday that the Chief Minister’s Office has become the epicentre of corruption, smuggling and anti-national activities. Reacting to the report submitted by the ED in the court on Wednesday, he alleged that he State administration is under the control of a cabal consisting of corrupt officials, party leaders and smugglers.
In a report submitted to the court on Wednesday seeking an extension of the custody of M Sivsankar, the former principal secretary to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the ED told the court that the bureaucrat refused to answer the questions posed to him by the investigation team. Since Sivsankar was not cooperating with the ED, the agency took into custody Swapna Suresh with the concurrence of the court and she was interrogated.
Swapna, who had close liaison with Sivsankar told the ED officials that the former principal secretary was privy to all illegal and underhand dealings associated with the LIFE Mission and K-Fone projects. The Rs one crore seized from a ban locker in her name was the bribe amount meant for Sivsankar from one of the beneficiaries of the LIFE Mission project, Swapna reportedly told the ED team. She also disclosed that she too had certain roles in the award of contracts and business associated with these projects.
In yet another setback to the CPI(M), Bineesh Kosiyeri, son of party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who was arrested by the ED in connection with money laundering and financing of narcotics trade was sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Wednesday by a court in Bangalore. Bineesh’s custody period under the ED got over on Wednesday. Though the ED did not ask for extending his custody period, the agency opposed granting of bail to him on the ground that he wielded massive political and official influence.